June 01, 2012

Here's a situation where I'm pretty sure I can speak for the average person. If you're like me, you probably have always thought of bone marrow donation as something scary and heavily medicalized that involves drilling directly into your bones. Actually, it's not like that at all. Most donors undergo a procedure that's basically a blood donation. A few have bone marrow extracted from a hip bone, but they're sedated for the process and it's largely painless.

Getting into the registry is painless as well. It involves filling out a form and swabbing the inside of your cheek. Seriously, the hardest part about it is figuring out what ethnic group you belong to. (I went with Northern European and Western European. That should cover the Swedes, British and Germans lurking in my DNA.)

I'm going to give you another good reason to register: her name is Kris Miner. She suffers from transformed cutaneous t-cell lymphoma and the only treatment available for her is a stem cell and bone marrow transplant. However, there is no match for her in the national bone marrow registry. She is of Dutch and German extraction, so if you're interested in helping her specifically and that's your background as well (I'm looking at you, Iowegians), please visit this page to get more information and join the registry.

No matter what your DNA profile, bone marrow donors are needed to help treat a variety of life-threatening diseases. The National Marrow Donor Program can also use monetary donations and volunteers, so there are many ways to help. And help is very much needed.

November 19, 2011

Man, it's been a long day. I took two shifts at different Petco stores taking care of the adoptable cats.

This morning I filled in at a large store that had fourteen cats and kittens. It took two full hours to clean the playroom, kennels and free roam area. The cats were all very sweet and I got to meet some that I hadn't seen before.

Once I was finished, I had time to go to a friend's brunch and hang out for a couple of hours.

After that, I went home and got online to continue the project I started last night: adding cats and kittens to Petfinder. It's a time-consuming process but very important because it helps them get found by people who are searching for specific cat attributes, and also makes it easier for people who see them in the stores to apply for them.

My husband woke up late, but once he was up and around, I took him out to dinner.

On the way home I went and did my usual Saturday evening Petco shift at a smaller store (five cats and kittens). The younger cats needed liquid medicine and it must have tasted awful because I think more of it ended up splattered on the floor and walls than down their gullets.

Now I'm finally finished and ready to take it easy, watch some TV and have a glass of wine. I think I've earned it.

October 26, 2011

I'm signed up for two charity 5K walks the first two weekends in November, so I figured I would tell you why I was drawn to the charities in question and see if I can rustle up a few donations and/or fellow walkers.

The first is the Jeff Taylor Run for SAFE, named for a Riverside, Missouri police officer who was struck by lightning and killed while conducting search and rescue operations in the aftermath of the tornado that hit Joplin, Missouri earlier this year. Funds raised go to support an organization that aids the surviving spouses and families of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty.

I'm doing this one partly because Cagey invited me, but mainly because I grew up around police officers (not to mention that my brother-in-law is one) and I understand how dangerous their jobs can be and how important this charity is for families left behind.

This one doesn't involve fundraising, but I'd love to have other KC folks join us. I think Cagey is planning on doing some running, so I could use someone to walk with me!

My second event is the Lung Hill Run, which I'll be walking with @bonnieglick. (Notice how they're all called runs and yet I'm walking. I'm just not a runner.) This is one where donations are important. It benefits LUNGevity Foundation, the leading private provider of research funding for lung cancer.

I lost my mother to lung cancer in 1998 and my stepmother died from it at the beginning of this year. It's a horrible, horrible disease that is much more prevalent than people realize. I feel very strongly about improving early detection and treatment protocols to save others from the same fate.

On a lighter note, I'm looking forward to enjoying the brisk fall mornings with motivated people. If you'd like to join me or throw some money into the pot, I'd very much appreciate either one.

March 11, 2011

I'm all signed up to do the March for Babies walk again. This year I'm on the Social Media Club of Kansas City team and we're hoping to raise a total of $5,000 to help ensure that all babies are born healthy.

To inspire you to donate, I've posted an adorable photo of my niece as a baby. She will soon be turning 11 and was robustly healthy from the beginning, but many babies aren't so fortunate.

I've set a personal fundraising goal of $300. I raised that amount easily a couple of years ago and you guys did most of the donating, so here's your chance to help out once again. I know money is tight, but even $5 would be much appreciated.

If you're in the Kansas City area and you'd like to walk with my team, we'd love to have you. Just click the link in the first paragraph and register.

In both instances, people came out of the woodwork wanting to adopt the "miracle dog."

Well I have some news for those people: you can accomplish the very same "miracle" any day of the week just by visiting an animal shelter and taking your pick.

Sure, it's amazing when an animal defies the odds and manages to escape certain death. But what about the other 3,999,999 dogs and cats that are euthanized every year in the United States? Is an uncanny resistance to poison your only criterion for choosing a pet? It shouldn't be.

If you want a dog or cat and can provide it a good home, don't wait around for something extraordinary to happen. Go to your local shelter and meet the animals. If you feel strongly about adopting from a no-kill organization, that's great: you'll be freeing up space for them to pull animals from local kill shelters.

It would be wonderful if we lived in a world where every homeless pet got the kind of news coverage that would prompt hundreds of people to want to take them home. In the real world, we have no choice but to go looking for each special pet on our own.

September 15, 2010

It's that time of year again! I've revived last year's Average Jane Team for Denim Day and I invite you to join my team and donate $5 toward the Women’s Cancer Programs of EIF by Friday, October 8th. Just click the graphic below.

Lee is doing a great giveaway on their Facebook page right now where you can win $500 in clothing and $500 to be donated in your name to the cause.

Disclosure: Lee is one of my company's clients and I work on their account. However, I make the personal choice to participate annually in Lee National Denim Day.

It's not an overstatement to say that my working life for the past half-decade has been steeped in breast cancer awareness. I've worked on two different clients whose sole focus was fundraising for breast cancer prevention, awareness, early detection and research. I have conducted personal interviews with breast cancer survivors in all stages of treatment, and met many more as they worked to do everything they could to help others fight the disease.

However, none of that prepared me for the scare I had over the past two days. (Spoiler: I'm fine. Really.)

My first mammogram two years ago was the traditional kind, but the imaging center had upgraded to a much higher resolution digital system in the meantime. After my scans this time, the technician mentioned a distinct spot on one side that she identified as a probable cyst. She asked if I wanted to see it, and of course I did.

The image showed a large, white, perfectly round area that looked like a marble. On the much-blurrier baseline image it was harder to see, but there was still an evident white area in the same spot.

The next day, my husband called to say that the imaging center had left a message to call them back. Uh oh. I told him I'd call him back as soon as I found out what they wanted.

It turned out that they wanted to follow up with an ultrasound of what they described as a 3-cm cyst, just to make sure everything was okay. Fortunately, I was able to schedule it first thing this morning.

I called my husband back and calmly told him I'd be having an ultrasound in the morning. I even breezily assured him I wasn't worried and that even if the worst case scenario were to occur, it would all be fine because breast cancer is so treatable. Tra-la-la. I even consulted Dr. Google and sent him a link to a reassuring article about how it was all perfectly routine.

Then I got mad at myself for being such a giant liar. Truth is, I was definitely freaking out.

One of the things the woman said as I was scheduling my ultrasound is that she was sure I'd be able to feel the lump. She was right, I could definitely feel it. The question I kept asking myself was why hadn't I noticed it before?

I thought was was being pretty conscientious about self-exams, but apparently I had no idea what I was supposed to be concerned about. In fact, that area has chronically been a bit sore for some time, but I'd chalked it up to an ill-fitting underwire.

I didn't sleep well last night, even though all signs really did point to the lump being a cyst. On top of that, I started coming down with a cold, possibly due - at least in part - to the stress I was doing my best to suppress.

The ultrasound was at 7:30 this morning. It occurred to me that going to the appointment by myself might be a mistake, but I did it anyway. After the ultrasound was finished, the technician told me to wait and she'd be back with the results right away. I'm sure I only waited about ten minutes, but it felt like hours as my mind raced through all of the possibilities and scenarios.

It turned out that I have a lot of small cysts and one large one. That's all. They want to recheck me in six months, but for now I'm in the clear. Whew. Oh, and I could probably keep the pain down by staying away from caffeine. Bad timing for that, since I just re-caffeinated myself again.

So that's my way-too-close-to-home breast cancer awareness story. I hope you'll all heed my public service announcement and follow the suggestions all year 'round.

January 16, 2009

On Thursday, February 5th at 6:00 p.m., Ultimate Fakebook and the Republic Tigers will be co-headlining the JayRock4 Benefit Concert, an all-ages show to support the JayDoc Free Clinic, which provides free health care in the Kansas City area and the social education of medical students.

Help support free health care and the local music scene at the same time!

The JayDoc Free Clinic is the ONLY student run AND student governed free clinic in the country. They are the only clinic in Kansas City that:- Provides absolutely free care to ALL patients- Requires no patient identification or proof of income to obtain services- Receives ALL funding from community grants and student-organized fundraisers

Sorry to exclude all of you from other parts of the country and world, but I have a special giveaway just for Kansas City area folks. I have TWO PAIRS of tickets to the show to give away. If you're interested, just leave a comment by midnight, Friday, January 23rd and I'll draw a winner the next day and mail out your tickets.

Even if you don't win tickets, I hope you'll buy some and support this worthy cause and great local bands.